PS116 School Hours

Parents, PS116 plans to change its daily start and end times by 15 minutes later. We were told the reason for the change is that children enrolled in 37 1/2 minutes morning program are often 15 minutes late. This change presents a host of problems for us working parents. 1. Many of us are due to arrive work at 9am. Drop off at 8:55am will cause tardiness at work, which is not acceptable for many of us. 2. Early drop off in the cafeteria in order to be punctual for work has been a suggestion, but this is entirely undesirable. Yard drop off in the morning provides valuable quality time with our kids; we are working parents, we need every minute together. The yard drop off also facilitates communication with classmates' parents, community building and teacher interaction. 3. Attendance to math and reading buddies, another valuable time for interaction with both kids and classmates, will be made difficult if not impossible for many of us. 4. Afterschool programs will now be logistically difficult for on time arrival with a later dismissal. We need your support on keeping school hours status quo. The school organization who independently made this decision does not represent the community at large. We need our voices to be heard. Please help us affect this simple change that will make our lives so drastically different.